Japan Today Spotlight #5 | Why won’t Japan screen Shiori Ito’s ‘Black Box Diaries’?

'Black Box Diaries' Splits A Journalist In Two

The “black box” in the title of Shiori Itō’s documentary Black Box Diaries, in which the journalist investigates her own sexual assault, essentially refers to the excuse Japan gives for not properly investigating rape cases. “Because it’s in a black box, we’ll never really know what happened,” is what Itō was told, and as she says in the film, “I think that tells everything about our justice system.” But the black box works as a loose metaphor f…

Japan Today Spotlight #5 | Why won’t Japan screen Shiori Ito’s ‘Black Box Diaries’?

Why won’t Japan’s theaters screen "Black Box Diaries," the Academy Award-nominated documentary by journalist and filmmaker Shiori Ito? Ito, the face of Japan’s #MeToo movement, has fought for justice for nearly a decade after her sexual assault case against a well-connected journalist. But despite international recognition, her film faces censorship, legal roadblocks and media…

The Documentary Black Box Diaries and Marriot International: Who’s Actually Protesting?

The documentary Black Box Diaries has taken the world by storm. It is the story of journalist Shiori Ito, who directed the film. In 2015, the young journalist was raped by Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a powerful media figure with close ties to then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Even more disturbing was how the police had initially pursued the case, obtaining an arrest warrant for Yamaguchi, only to have the arrest suddenly quashed by a high-ranking governme…